Fusion energy has been “20 years away” for decades, but has the science finally caught up? Private investment in fusion companies surged from $10 billion to $15 billion in just months, and the money is coming from places you wouldn’t expect.
On this episode of TechCrunch’s Equity podcast, Rebecca Bellan and guest host Tim De Chant sit down with Rachel Slaybaugh, general partner at DCVC, to break down why serious investors are finally treating fusion as a real asset class, and what the return thesis actually looks like when no one expects a power plant in their fund lifetime.
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Chapters:
00:00 Intro & fusion fest check-in
01:52 Why fusion, why now?
05:04 Federal funding history
06:17 The IEA’s 2030 milestone
07:37 What’s actually new: AI & superconducting magnets
09:19 Near-term revenue vs. staying the course
12:03 The return thesis: betting on “fusion euphoria”
19:33 Portfolio strategy: betting on the whole stack
21:16 How much energy do we actually need?
25:39 Data centers & the regulatory window
29:06 Fusion vs. fission explained
30:15 Going public: SPACs & Trump Media
32:08 Outro
@jeffcraymore
April 22, 2026 at 4:03 pm
It is “sci-fi” if they had a brain. They would know it’s a scam. Over Unity. You can’t produce more power than what is required to produce that power.
They are at 80% output verse the amount they need to run the test.
They will never reach 110% output. because it is physically impossible.
While, yeah for them to allow the scientists to keep playing with their toys (doing research) In no reality can they produce over unity.
@SchweetOne
April 22, 2026 at 6:03 pm
The catch with fusion is that the time period that the fusion lasts at lawrence livermore is only trillionths of a second. Sure fusion has been sustained for many minutes in other cases, but reaching ignition and having it last is still very far away it seems. They need to go from ignition events one to two times per day, to having thousands per second. 5 billion is chump change if a miracle happens and there’s a massive breakthrough, but it’s not exactly ‘close’. Quantum is just as far away.